George Peppard plays a hard-driven industrialist more than a little reminiscent of Howard Hughes.
While he builds airplanes, directs movies and breaks hearts, his friends and lovers try to reach his human side, and find that it's an uphill battle.
The film's title is a metaphor for self-promoting tycoons who perform quick financial takeovers, impose dictatorial controls for short-term profits, then move on to greener pastures.
The Carpetbaggers is the kind of trashy classic most people were too embarrassed to admit they enjoyed back in the early 60s.
But this Harold Robbins adaptation is so cheerfully vulgar, it's hard not to have a good time - especially given the thinly veiled portrait of Howard Hughes at its center. George Peppard plays the heel-hero, who founds an airline company in the 1920s and buys a movie studio in the 1930s, crushing friends and mistresses along the way.
The high cheese factor is aided by the good-time cast: Carroll Baker as Peppard's hot stepmom, Bob Cummings (quite funny) as a cynical agent, and Elizabeth Ashley, who married Peppard, in her debut -uncharacteristically, as a good girl.
One sad note is Alan Ladd, looking and sounding very end-of-the-line in his final role, as a man's man cowboy star.
Elmer Bernstein's swaggering score helps goose the action along.
一次大地震令洛杉矶地底深处的火山喷发,向着住宅区流去,维修地下管道的工人被烧死。地质学家艾美和朋友下去隧道勘测时亲身经历了朋友被岩浆喷发带走了生命。一时之间,城市一隅充满了地底爆发的岩浆。危机处理中心总指挥麦克(Tommy Lee Jones 饰)采取了艾美博士的建议开始疏散人群,他们先利用数百万吨空中降水来使来势汹汹的岩浆变成障碍物,阻挡了岩浆的流动。正当大家以为松一口气时,艾美博士认为岩浆并没有真正被阻挡,只是改变了流向,而且正在往充满伤员的医院奔涌。他们只剩下30分钟的时间去处理这个问题,他们能成功吗?
故事发生在美国南北战争时期。图科(埃里•瓦拉赫 Eli Wallach 饰)是一个图财害命的江洋大盗,因此他被镇上悬赏通缉。布兰迪(克林特•伊斯特伍德 Clint Eastwood 饰)是一个除暴安良的牛仔,他无意中抓住了图科,但嫌赏金不够又掳走了他。在荒漠中,布兰迪惩罚图科让其自生自灭。但是诡诈的图科居然逃过了一劫,并纠集一些帮凶在客栈捉住了布兰迪。正当图科以牙还牙折磨布兰迪的时候,他劫持了一个名叫卡森的士兵。后者临死前留下了宝藏的秘密,图科和布兰迪分别获得了一半信息。与此同时,一个狡猾的杀手桑坦萨(李•范•克里夫 Lee Van Cleef 饰)也通过其他渠道发现了宝藏的秘密。于是,在寻宝的道路上,三个人使出浑身解数,上演了一场场对决的好戏……